in iraq and fighting while we were working hard to get abu assad and hadn't gotten him yet. and brought me in with the national security council and asked me directly, okay, are we going to get him? and my response was with confidence yes, but i couldn't tell him how quickly, but instead of falling back the way that some leaders might do, you know, false pressure or something like this, he was supportive and professional he said well, stay at it. so, very, very impressive to me. president obama was very gracious to me in every engagement that we had. we did the analysis in the fall of 2009 on the strategy, additional forces and there were extraordinary political pressures pushing on them. there were pressures at n.a.t.o. and pressures inside afghanistan. i'm quite sure there were tremendous political pressure inside the united states and as we went through the process i appreciated the chance to be consulted and to be able to provide my unvarnished input each step of the way. >> sean: i'm going to get to obama and your relationship with him a little in the next segment. let me ask you, two
